Dear Archbishop Prof. Dr. Schirrmacher,
On behalf of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and on my own behalf, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to you on your 65th birthday. May this day be a moment of gratitude for all you have achieved—and a glimpse of what still lies ahead.
Your decades of work for religious freedom, interfaith dialogue, and the worldwide defense of human rights are as impressive as they are groundbreaking. With foresight, intellectual depth, and perseverance, you have built bridges not only within the evangelical movement, but far beyond ecclesiastical and political boundaries. Since the late 1990s, initially under the leadership of Hermann Gröhe and later in close coordination with Volker Kauder, Peter Gauweiler, and other members of our parliamentary group, you have significantly enriched the work of the German Bundestag with your expertise and spiritual attitude. Whether as an expert advisor to the Human Rights Committee, as a co-creator of Christian-political policy issues, or as a representative in the Protestant Working Group of the CDU/CSU, your commitment has always been characterized by profound knowledge, spiritual conviction, and a broad ecumenical horizon.
We are particularly grateful for your continuous support of our parliamentary group, for example since your first expert activity in 2006 in the Subcommittee on Foreign Cultural Policy. Your critical insights into the global situation of religious freedom, the situation of persecuted Christians, and questions of interreligious dialogue have had a lasting impact on our parliamentary work. The fact that there is now a Federal Government Commissioner for Religious Freedom is due in no small part to your persistent efforts. Your early discussions with figures such as Angela Merkel and Hermann Gröhe and your involvement in the CDU/CSU’s Protestant Working Group demonstrate that, with clear direction and deep conviction, you have contributed to making religious freedom a central issue in Christian Democratic politics, both nationally and internationally.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude for all of this. I wish you good health, strength, and God’s continued blessings for your worldwide work, especially at the helm of the World Evangelical Alliance.
With kind regards
Dr. Günter Krings